My Son's First Prayer

 

     I must begin by telling you that Jayce is a HUGE fan of the show "My Friends Tigger and Pooh". This is an old show that used to be on Disney Jr. back when it was Playhouse Disney! We started getting the movies from the library and he has fallen in love with these Super Sleuths. So, for his birthday, Grammie and PopPop gifted Jayce with Tigger, Roo, Eeyore, Piglet, and Pooh. This was indeed one of his favorite gifts and they all get hugged and played with many times throughout the day, everyday since his birthday.

 

     Tonight while shopping for furniture for our front room at local thrift stores, we found a rare treasure for our son Jayce, a little stuffed "Buster" from "My Friends Tigger and Pooh". His eyes lit up and he hugged him, running immediately to his daddy, "I can take him home?" $1.54 was a small price to pay so that Jayce could have all of his "friends" together at home.



     Now, for those of you who do not know my son, he LOVES for everyone to be together.  If we're going to see PawPaw, he wants to make sure MawMaw will be there. Going to see Aunt Susan? What about Uncle Kris, and Kristian? He always asks about the whole family and wants to make sure they're all together. He is the same way with his toys. He must have 100 dinosaurs, we could dump out 99 of them, he'd look at all of them, and say "Where's the trex?" (Or whatever one was missing.) His memory is amazing and his desire for everyone to be together is touching.

     So, after getting into the car Jayce starts to ask for Darby and Lumpy (the other two characters that he does not have yet from the show). Knowing how rare it was to find Buster, seeing as the show has been canceled for some time, I just casually said "We'll see." Well, it's not that easy with Jayce, once he gets something in his head, he will CONTINUALLY talk about it until the answer is clear. So, again, "I need to get Darby and Lumpy." So, I told Jayce "I think that's something you need to pray about Jayce because it's not going to be easy to find those toys." Well, Jayce closed his little eyes and said his first prayer (this is how it sounded) "Dear Jesus, fank you for bwinging Darby home and fank you for bwinging Flumpy home. Jesus Name Amen." It was THE sweetest little prayer. I mean, he's prayed before, but mostly just by repeating whatever Mommy and Daddy said, this was all on his own. What I loved most about it is that he didn't ASK for them, he THANKED God for them. Almost as if he was claiming that God was definitely going to give him a Darby and Lumpy. He repeated this prayer three or four more times on the way home.

     When our car pulled into the drive, Jayce started falling apart, crying and crying for Darby and Lumpy. Adam and I tried repeatedly to explain to him that it takes time for God to answer prayers. And I have never seen my son so heart broken. He cried, desperately, for quite a while and it was so hard to know that he just didn't understand. We were finally able to calm him down after a bath and a "What's in the Bible" video, but my mind kept going through the whole scene.

     For I am so often like that with God myself. First and foremost, not grateful for the rare treasures He has blessed me with already and focusing only on what I do not have. Then, after I pray for them, I wait SO impatiently wondering why God hasn't fulfilled my request yet. So, this little adventure has been a great lesson for all of us. I'm excited that Jayce has stepped out in faith and prayed to our Lord, the Giver of all good things, for his precious Darby and Lumpy, and I am also excited that Jayce must wait to see what God will do. God has spoken to me through this to show me how to pray with more faith and to wait patiently and enjoy the many treasures He has already given to me.  Also, I think I might just burst out in tears if we EVER do find a Lumpy or a Darby because I'm not sure even if we went to every store in Hampton Roads if we would ever find one!!! So, it would truly be a miracle gift from God!!

     Thank you Lord for my children. Thank you for teaching me more about You, and me, through them. You are good!!

"A" Great Start

We finally received our A Beka books in the mail and I was excited to start our formal school year. Since we moved into a new home, here a few pictures of the boy's new school room.

 We were excited when we moved in to see a room with built-in bookshelves, we knew it would make a great school room!

For the Letter A, here are some books we borrowed from the library. Jayce's favorites were "I Saw an Ant in a Parking Lot" by Joshua Prince and of course, Little Critters "Astronaut". I loved the "Fall Harvests Bringing in Food" because it was great to teach about when to plant and what happens to the seeds and lots of other fun fall stuff.

We read the "Apple Tree" poem and then made a craft.

 And we learned about Ants and how God made them orderly creatures. They all have different jobs and they all work together to make sure the colony is safe and well fed.

 We practiced (and practiced and practiced) tracing the letter A. This is not an exercise that Jayce enjoys very much, but we're keeping at it!

 Then he tried to make one on his own! He did a good job (after MUCH coaching) but there has not been a repeat occurrence. Haha, but it's okay, he'll get it soon enough.

 We used the Bible verse for the letter A from http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/ Jayce LOVED cutting and pasting the verse together.

 We also found "A's" outside, here's Jayce standing by one on the playground!

 And we found acorns (I had no idea we had these in our backyard) and collected them in an alligator sand mold. Both of the boys thought this was like finding buried treasure. It kept them busy for quite a while.

We ended our week with an Apple Dump Cake, very easy to make so Jayce helped with every part of it. A very yummy lesson!

 

Warrior Training

We are also starting what we call Warrior Training with Jayce (and Josiah) where every month we focus on one Godly character trait. We teach him a simple definition, we also teach him about different animals that God has created that have that characteristic, take him on field trips to places that we can learn more about that characteristic, and of course, teach him how to implement it into his life.

This month our Warrior Training Characteristic is "Orderliness"

 Daddy taught Jayce about the woodchuck and how he is orderly by the way he makes his home and how he goes potty.

Jayce is showing orderliness by cleaning up his crumbs from his afternoon snack.

 

This school year has started off wonderful but also with new challenges. We're learning how to stay focused even when Josiah is running around pulling books off the shelves or trying to color on our paper and, because of little brother, we're having to stretch out our learning throughout the day. It means abrupt stops during some lessons, and having to stop playing (which isn't always happily done) in order to pick up that lesson later in the day. But it is in these challenges that God produces character in us. It was good to start our school year off with Proverbs 15:1 "A soft answer turns away wrath." :)

The Start of a New School Year

I decided to start the school year as soon as the boy's birthday party was over. The party required a lot of running around and planning, so as soon as it was done, it was time for scheduled and somewhat more predictable days to make a comeback! I was a bit disappointed though because my A Beka book still hadn't come in the mail yet. So...we mainly did some review and fun, hands-on activities to kick off our first week of school.

Jayce got some great new gifts for his birthday and one of his favorites is an Elmo sticker book from his Aunt DiDi, and it's been a great learning resource to use for school.

 This page (above) was about Baby Bear going on a nature hike, and all the wonderful things he saw. So, we talked about God's creation and matched the stickers.

 And on this page he matched all the colors in the right boxes.

Jayce also received a Tigger book that is full of the Alphabet, Numbers, Shapes, and even Manners and we used that as well in the first week of school. Here I would call out the number, he would find it and open the flap to see what was underneath. He loved the surprises!

We decided to go on our own Nature Hike just like Baby Bear and see what we could find. Jayce found his own set of binoculars and we set out. Here he's looking for bugs under a rock.

We have a big book of worksheets that I picked up one day from Sam's club (and is actually what we've been using over the summer) and we did a few of those.

 And, a new school year wouldn't be complete without some finger painting! Jayce and Josiah received some Crayola Wonder finger paint that only shows up on special paper. GENIUS!

Jayce did a great job adjusting to his new schedule and we're all really looking forward to what God is going to teach each one of us.

I'll be posting an update of the first week with our curriculum books as well as our new Warrior Training with our monthly character quality we're learning. Oh how blessed we are to learn about so many wonderful things!

A Busy Summer

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge..." Proverbs 1:7

 So, I know that I ended my last blog saying that I would continue posting throughout the summer, but I had no idea how busy things were about to get for us. Near the end of May, we started house hunting and by the beginning of June, we had found a house and had a closing date of June 28th. The packing and paper work and address changes began and the stress level started climbing. I had heard several times from various people that moving was one of the top ten most stressful things in a person's life. I knew that statement had some truth to it, but I had no idea exactly how much.
   At home with the boys while Adam was at work, I tried to do as much packing as my busy little guys would allow. It proved to be a challenging task with having to stop every couple of seconds to change diapers, take potty brakes, clean up messes, have snack time, make bottles, play, discipline, and have a nap time thrown in here and there. It was definitely an exciting time though and we could see God's hand in every situation. But through all of this, I learned an important lesson in "home" schooling. As Christians, our homeschooling involves so much more than teaching about numbers and letters and science and nature. As J. C. Ryle writes,

"We live in days when there is a mighty zeal for education in every quarter: We hear of new schools rising on all sides. We are told of new systems, and new books for the young, of every sort and description. And still for all this, the vast majority of children are manifestly not trained in the way they should go, for when they grow up to man's estate, they do not walk with God." (The Duties of Parents)

  How deeply this quote touches me as a mother because I do NOT want my children to be grouped into that category. I long to see my boys walking closely with the Lord and handling every situation in life in a way that glorifies Him. I know education is important. The book of Proverbs holds wisdom in high regards, but we must be aware that wisdom comes from walking closely with God, not just knowing all the right answers.
   Our AMAZING family and friends served us in a mighty way by conducting the fastest move known to man! Starting at 9am and ending just a little before 1pm, everything was moved from one house to another. Our neighbors all commented that they couldn't believe how fast it all happened. God is good! But, the stress did not end after the boxes moved from one house to another. It was a new place for the boys and it brought out new emotions and attitudes for the both of them. They both became rather clingy and I couldn't seem to walk two feet away from Bug without him screaming. I did most of the unpacking with him on my hip and poor Jayce was feeling left out, so he too, wanted and asked for Mommy a lot more than usual. This was also the time that a heat wave came about and our new house was not equipped with central AC. This wasn't a huge deal for us UNTIL two out of the three of our window units gave out, when the temperature outside was 104 degrees. So we were left with one little ac unit(praise the Lord for that little ac unit!!) in the very back of the house in the boy's room. Not to mention, our vacation started in less than two weeks, something else to pack up for and plan for. And this is where the lessons begins, the Lord says...

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:5-9

And Elisabeth Elliot says,
"Nothing trains and teaches so powerfully as love. Love attracts; it does not coerce. If the aim of the parents is to teach their children to love God, they must show their love for Him by loving each other and loving the children."

  With all of the stress, excitement, and challenges going on, I was tempted to lose it, every day, and most of the time, every hour! Whiny kids, boxes EVERYWHERE, dirty floors and windows, a million fixer-upper projects laying around, hubby gone at work, HOT HOT HOT in the house, and a family vacation looming over me, tested me to my limits. I regret to say that I did NOT win every battle, but the Lord is gracious. He would remind me "How would you want YOUR children to act in this same situation years from now?" Of course, I would want them to pray, rejoice, find the good and blessing in all things, laugh, and share God's love. So, I would ask Him to do that through me. When I was melting down (and so were the kids) I would pray, pray that my kids would learn the lesson of loving God with all their heart, knowing He would provide. I want them to remember that as Christians "we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.'" (Heb. 12:28-29

   During those hectic days, we laughed and jumped and danced A LOT, but we also whined and complained and cried A LOT! But, like I said, we are LEARNING! Praise the Lord that He is slow to anger and abounding in love! God has reminded me in all of this that the most important thing I can teach my kids is to love Him first and with everything we have, if they can learn that, they will be the smarted kids on earth! "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:17

The boys enjoying our new backyard!

Y AND Z!!

Wow! What an adventure it has been going through the alphabet with Jayce over the past year. We are wrapping up his first year of homeschool with letters Y and Z. For the letter Y we made a yo-yo out of paper and yarn. This motor skill exercise was a little bit tricky for Jayce. We worked together on putting the string through one hole, then pulling it back through another. After a while, he got the hang of it.

We also tried cutting a picture of a yo-yo into three pieces, then putting it all back together. Teaching Jayce to look at the picture, see what's missing, then try to piece it all together to make the picture complete.

And since this was our last week of school, I wanted Jayce to be able to do some of his favorite exercises,

like the dot worksheet. Using the yellow dot marker of course.

And painting!

For a fun fieldtrip, we went out on a yucky Wednesday to get some frozen yogurt. Jayce loves looking at all the toppings and picking out which ones he wants. The chocolate chips are his favorite!

This was a fun fieldtrip!

Jayce's Springtime Flowers

Jayce's flowers that we planted at the beginning of spring were getting too big for our little pots, so we needed to transfer them some where that they could grow bigger. Grammie was happy to let us use her garden.

Jayce was very good at watering all of his little plants.

But he was more concerned with watering the rocks. He was very thorough with this, making sure to water every single rock in Grammie's garden.

We planted his sunflower right by the back door and made sure to show Pop Pop where it was so he wouldn't run over it with the lawn mower.

His sunflower is doing really great, it's already twice this size!

AND Z

We made a neat zoo craft. Jayce colored some of the animals, then we glued the gates on the front so we could open them and see all the animals inside the zoo. And of course we made a fieldtrip to the zoo with Aunt Susan and cousin Kristian. Jayce's favorite part is always the farm.

We practiced pulling a zipper up and down. It was neat to see how it worked.

  So, now we are all done with our curriculum for the summer! It has been amazing to watch Jayce learn and grow so much this past year. It's hard to believe that he now knows 27 Bible verses, all of Psalm 91, the pledge to the flag, the 10 Commandments, all of the shapes, colors, numbers, different weather, days of the week, months of the year up to May, the entire alphabet and all the sounds of the letters, and countless facts about all kinds of animals from all over the world! God is so good to give us such wonderful things to learn about.

  This is definitely not the end of the blog for the summer. We plan on taking lots of fun trips and learning more about God's wonderful world and doing lots of fun crafts and projects as well. If you feel led, please pray for us as we attempt to put together some sort of curriculum for next year that focuses on teaching Godly character, something we feel is incredibly important for children to know and understand. We don't know if it will be ready for the next school year or not, but we'll see what God does. This is an exciting time and we are filled with joy as the Lord directs our each step!

We're Getting So Close!

Okay, again, I KNOW I'm late with this one. Some of you may have seen my post on facebook and you know that we are actually done with school for the summer :) HOORAY! But we have been very busy with wonderful things like celebrating Mother's Day and college graduations and looking for houses and even a little mini vacation, so I haven't had the chance to update our blog in a while. So, here we are with W and X.

Letter W

 We made a Walrus puppet. This is Wackford Walrus.

 Jayce did a great job following directions, putting the eyes in just the right place.

 This is Jayce making Wackford say, "Hello Jayce. What are you doing today?"

We also had a little bit of water play. This has been one of Jayce's favorite Tot Tray exercises. We took blue water and yellow water and made GREEN.

 It got kinda messy after a while so we moved it to the bathtub. Jayce got covered with green water, but he had a BLAST!!

Letter X

 Letter X was a bit difficult to find "hands on" activities for. So, we did a treasure hunt. If you're wondering where the connection is in that..."X" marks the spot :) I printed out several pictures of different things throughout our house, as he opened the paper and saw the picture, he would know where to go next.

 Here he is opening up one of his clues.

 The treasure is under the "X"

 HE FOUND IT!

YUM! What a great treasure! Resee Cups!!

Well, I did have a video of Jayce doing his treasure hunt, but for some reason it took the blogger.com site WAY too long to load. So, sorry, perhaps I can share it on facebook soon.

I hope you've enjoyed our activities for W and X. Our final letters are soon to follow!